A Sunless Dream

Failure. Repeated, inescapable, unrelenting and unforgettable failure. This concept repeated itself in Sunny's mind as he looked up into the sky upon the conclusion of his third nightmare. Though it was hard and completely insufferable to experience, he believed he had made the right choice in putting his freedom above all else. He was born in the outskirts, which was a fate that he had no choice in nor any power to control, and even as his first nightmare began, he surprisingly found himself in the position of a slave once more.

It had to stop eventually.

He had suffered, endured, persisted in his single-minded goal of attaining freedom, going so far as to abandon his cohort whom he had treated like family to attain it. However, though he had fought his hardest to attempt to escape the inescapable omnipresent grip of fate it seems as though all his efforts were futile.

Checking his runes, Sunny looked down, trying to assess his nature once more. If what Cassie said was true, then he would now be free. Not only from fate, but from his slavery to the woman whom he was supposed to love. But it was never that easy it seemed.

Name – Sunless

True Name – Lost from Light

Master – Changing Star

Attributes – [Lord of Shadows] [Grip of Fate] [Flame of Divinity]

Innate Attribute – [Shadow Dance]

Memories – [Endless Spring] [Cruel Sight] ....

Sunny's gaze remained firmly locked on the name Changing Star, he had put himself through endless amounts of suffering, hardship, mental torture just to receive his freedom from the woman. However, she still wouldn't leave his life alone, she always had something to do, say or influence when it came to him. The self control that Sunny yearned for as his life progressed had continued to be robbed by the woman who he was supposed to love.

"I'm...still a slave?" Sunny muttered to himself, he couldn't think of anything else currently as his new attributes and abilities all faded into a blur. Looking around him, Sunny's vision was filled with the vast and incomprehensible desert in which he was in before he began the third nightmare. Soon, his apathy turned into fear, which quickly made way for anger. 'How dare she.' He thought to himself, there was no single object for his current rage however that did little to calm the whirlwind of unaltered fury which coursed through his newly transcendent body.

Punching the sand, which quickly gave way not even daring to offer any resistance to the type of being he was now Sunny sent a tremor through the earth around him. He wanted to kill something; he wanted to hurt something and make it feel all the trauma and torment he had been forced to go through. However, being blinded by rage had been what forced Nephis to use her control over him within the nightmare, and he was not going to allow anyone to have the opportunity to do so to him once more.

Looking around, Sunny took in the environment. The sun which formerly radiated scorching heat did little to even affect his newfound power, slowly raising himself off the ground and extended his shadow sense to it's utmost limits. To his surprise, none of the members of the cohort were even present. His hand shot up to his head attempting to numb the earth-shaking headache that came from attempting to absorb that much information in such a short amount of time, though his mind had reached transcendence it would still take extreme amounts of practice to get used to.

Looking down, he noticed that he now had seven shadows surrounding his body as opposed to the six he had previously. The formation of a new core was supposed to be an event that promised a very familiar emotion which he seemed unable to go long periods without experiencing. Pain. However, nothing was usual with him currently.

Not even taking a moment to assess his attributes, Sunny concentrated and found his way back to the waking world where he had abandoned upon the clash between Song and Valor. Looking around once more, he felt faint remnants of the great nightmare creatures who had emerged from the gates interrupting Morgan's certain death at the hands of her brother 'Lucky bastard, how come I'm never as close to my goals as he is' he mused to himself bitterly.

If there was one thing Sunny had dedicated much of his life to attaining, it was strength. And with his continued bond with Nephis his patience for the woman and the very world itself was wearing thin, the existence of the sovereigns was not something he could take kindly to especially seeing as his emergence as a saint would undoubtedly cause immense disruption between the two rival clans. Sunny planned to use that fickle balance of power to his advantage, with his help and hopefully the help of the cohort he they could use their neutrality to force the two sovereigns into using their trust as incentive to come onto their side. With the trust of a sovereign, learning their flaws, aspect abilities and much more would never be out of reach allowing his eventual betrayal of them to be much easier.

As for Nephis, previously in the third nightmare he had been quite certain of his ability to end her life before she could even attempt to give him a command. With the help of the crown of twilight, which hopefully should grant at least some resistance to her ability to control him he allowed himself to lower his guard around her, assured he had contingencies should anything go wrong. However, he knew better than anyone else that assuming Changing Star's strength would remain stagnant was akin to signing your death sentence and so, he decided he should meet up with her and the rest of the cohort before running off and continuing his own personal goals.

'All that's left is to find them then' Sunny said, as he slowly paced through the forest in which his battle with Dire fang happened. It took Sunny a good amount of effort to resist laughing at the dead saint, who knew that so many of those who he deemed as 'Demi-Gods' could be defeated by two masters' with impeccable teamwork. Granted he and Nephis were far from the standard of masters. Eventually, still clad in his onyx armour Sunny made his way into the camp of clan Valor.

Upon his entry there, Sunny received a multitude of odd looks. Somehow, it seemed as if they did not recognise him. Though he made his presence readily scarce to the members of the clan before his departure into the dream realm, this level of alienation felt almost odd. Sunny ignored that fact and proceeded inwards trying his hardest to maintain a facade of indifference. In all reality Sunny was positively furious, his frustration at the damned Vile thieving bird knew no ends as if not for its interference Sunny was quite sure he would no longer be a slave, though in the world he lived in nothing was ever truly certain.

'Finally, a damned familiar face' he thought to himself as he stumbled upon Morgan, she was still being treated from her wounds gained through the battle with Mordet however her blazing red eyes remained locked on him as he entered the wide hall in which she was situated. Narrowing her eyes, she looked at him with an expression of utter confusion "What business do you have with clan Valor?" she asked, with her tone entirely unreadable, now it was Sunny's turn to be confused.

"I'm looking for Nephis and the rest of our cohort, my question is, why are you looking at me as if you're meeting me for the very first time?" He asked, slightly frustrated at her behaviour she tensed as he brought up the name of Anvil's newly adopted daughter. Though her adoption was common knowledge, what was truly uncommon was for one to barge into the camp and have enough presence to stop any nearby guards from even attempting to get in their way. Slowly she summoned a memory to her side, a long silver sword which seemed to absorb exude bloodlust somehow 'Kind of like the sin of solace, except less of a dickhead' he thought to himself "I'll only ask this once, who are you?" she replied her eyes narrowing at him once more, the guards within the room reluctantly tensed getting ready for a fight though all of their instincts screamed against even looking the stranger in the eye.

Sunny looked at her and scoffed, the very idea of her defeating him as he currently was almost elicited a laugh from him. Though he wasn't experienced enough with his newfound powers as he would have liked to be, he was completely certain in his ability to remove her head from her shoulders before she even got the chance to say another word. However, he couldn't focus on the fastest method to end her life as another more pertinent thought came up in his head 'How doesn't she recognize me?' he thought to himself, that was a matter for another time though. Currently, he was staring down Morgan of Valor as she tensed preparing herself for the worst, but what she didn't expect from him was for him to turn around and leave.

"Sorry, something is very wrong here" he stated as he continued to extend the distance between the two "we will meet again Morgan, once I've figured out what exactly is going on I'm sure our paths will cross eventually. Though if we stand as allies or enemies has yet to be determined" and with that, Sunny disappeared.